Deriving insights from data is one thing, but presenting it in an easily digestible way is a whole different ballgame. Combing narratives and visualizations make it possible to explain to your audience how and why data changed over time.
James Richardson from Gartner recently published a great article: “A data story starts out like any other story, with a beginning and a middle. However, the end should never be a fixed event, but rather a set of options or questions to trigger an action from the audience. Never forget that the goal of data storytelling is to encourage and energize critical thinking for business decisions.”
Data is complex and detailed, but if complex and detailed was the best way to consume information then we would all actually enjoy digging from spreadsheet to spreadsheet! Tracking hundreds of KPI’s can quickly become overwhelming and data overload will leave you spending more time translating hieroglyphics and less time understanding context to make informed decisions.
Don’t bombard users with all the information at once. Dashboards are supposed to keep analytics graceful and give us a way to find out where bottlenecks are occurring or show us something new we might have missed, and how to best prioritize our next move. The best dashboards are like a play, there is a lot of work behind the curtain making the experience as seamless and coherent as possible to the consumer.
Tell a story users will love:
- Effective Analysis: Make sure you understand your organization’s priorities & keep your audience in mind during development.
- Feedback Loops: Analytics is not a closed book. Involve users, test new insights, get people excited about data and the possibilities are endless!
- Data Evolves: Start allocating some time for trend spotting within your organization to spot new actionable insights.
- Challenge Norms: Unleash creativity and innovation! “best practice” is solutions to yesterdays problems.
- Keep It Simple: Understand what to build and what is too much by hashing out the: who + what + when + where + why + how.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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